Though there’s still a lot of post-mortem to be done on our first conference, EconSM, we are already thinking about our next conference specifically—and our events strategy in general. No, we are not going to become a conference company or try to develop franchise conferences in each category; we have decided to be strategic about it. Los Angeles being our home base made it the natural venue for our first conference; the next one will be in New York City, which we know will be orders of magnitude more difficult to pull off, and of course hellishly expensive, but we’ll do it anyway.

That leads to our second conference idea, actually announced at the end of EconSM: The Future of Business Media, an executive-level one-day conference exploring the future of consumer business media and, as an adjunct, how B2B media is changing with the rise of the individual business consumer. We knew it was a timely idea given the activity in the space; we were reminded of just how timely when it was disclosed today that Rupert Murdoch, whose acquisition of MySpace set the stage for EconSM, had offered $5 billion for Dow Jones.

A big part of the focus will, of course, be digital media, but not just that: we’ll look at the future of business magazines (the buzz surrounding Portfolio, along with the incumbents and their response to it); the future of business news and TV, including CNBC, Bloomberg and the imminent launch of the Fox Business News Channel; business news companies such as Dow Jones, Reuters, AP, and their future; primarily B2B companies migrating online, such as IDG, Reed Business, VNU, United Business Media and others; the online-only services such as Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, Google Finance, business aggregation and search services (both open and subscription) and others; trade media blog companies such as ours, Gigaom, SeekingAlpha and others and their effects on traditional business media; and other related topics. Of course, this is a fluid sketch; as was the case with EconSM, it will evolve as all of you help us shape it with your ideas.

With EconSM, we tried to bring the online editorial sensibilities that you seem to like (sharp, smart, cutting through spin, to the point) and mix it some of what we have achieved with the our now-regular mixers. Once again, we’ll take professional production, mix it with a not-deadly-serious (read “not boring") environment, community involvement before and during, and the editorial underpinning explained above. At the same time, we’ll provide value to sponsors beyond just setting up booths (access to a senior audience, not a “vendor talking to a vendor” crowd).

The dates: Most likely October or early November. We’re exploring various venues and can use your help on that as well. E-mail us at fobm AT contentnext.com with your ideas.